9/21/08 Autumn Leaves

Some trees change color earlier than others. This one is in some kind of fast heat and is practically already changed completely! This is in front of the Convention Center/Community Gymnasium where we park for church (the church is right next door).

9/20/08 Women's Soccer @ UMF

I actually made it to the soccer game! It helped that I thought the game was at 3:00 but it really started at 3:15. Here are the teams on the field for player introductions. I was only going to stay for the first half because I needed to get back to the office and get some work done. But it was such a gorgeous day and the UMF women were doing fabulous on defense against Maine Maritime, so I decided to stay for the second half. I knew two of my current students were on the team, McKell and Amber. I didn't know until I got there that one of my former students, Katie, was also on the team. So it was fun to root for specific girls that I knew as well as the team in general. At the end of the game, the score was 0-0 and I just assumed that was the end. I was nearly off the field when I realized that they were about to start playing again. People around me said outloud that guessing by the fact that there was no time on the clock, it must be that they were going to play sudden death and not overtime. I didn't know that you did either, I really just thought everyone would be happy with a tie. The game lasted an hour and a half with neither team able to score, I was getting nervous how long this sudden death might last, when suddenly, UMF had just scored. So the game was over much quicker than I thought. Shwew!

9/20/08 Abbott Park

Today, Saturday, was beautiful. On the calendar, it's still summer, though Autumn is only two days away. I worked on school work at the office until 2:30ish then headed out walking to a yard/art sale that was to benefit a local publishing company. The yard sale wasn't much, but the walk was gorgeous. I then walked to Hippach Field for the Women's Soccer Team match, only to find that there was no one there. Oh. Now I remember, the soccer game is at Prescott Field, which is down by the movie theatre on the other side of town. So I strolled through Abbott Park on my way back to the Education Center (the long way back) and took the time to just really enjoy Abbott Park and it's many bridges--each unique.

9/19/08 Yep. First Freeze

It's the end of a season. This morning when I got up at 7:00am, the outside temp was 34. You know it was colder than that earlier in the day, before the sun rose. It was all of 36 when I left the house at 8:30. I gave myself permission to wear a coat . . . a short coat (no WAY is it time for the long coat). I didn't see anyone else with short coats on. Jackets and hoodies, but no real coats. I do have a warm jacket that I could've warn except it was in my office where I wore it one chilly morning and then it was balmy when I left for home and I forgot it. Now I have two warm jackets at school. I hope I remember to bring them home.

So summer is really truly, for real, over. We may get some warm days but that would be Indian Summer and really a part of autumn, right? And now, I need to go to Ashley's to get my fall and winter clothes and take all those short-sleeved cotton blouses out of the closet. I have so little closet space here, that when I was telling a group of friends I was going to have to buy one of those clothes racks on wheels and set up a yard sale in my bedroom to hold all my clothes, Ashley offered me storage space in her basement. Now that's a real friend! So I have to drive 3 miles to her place, pick up some winter clothes (I probably won't bring out the Christmas apparel or the long coat yet), come back to the house, swap out enough clothes to create closet space without a need for that clothes rack, put those clothes in the storage bags that the winter ones are in now, and then take the spring and summer clothes to Ashley's basement. Or I could invest money in more storage bags, put the spring and summer clothes in those ahead of time, and make one trip to Ashley's basement. But then again, I'd have to find a place to store the extra storage bags. Oh the dilemma! ;-)

The good news is, the weather is fabulous. I love Autumn and I get to have a real one here in Maine.

9/18/08 The End of a Season

Here's the National Weather map for tonight for Maine. A little part of the state is having a frost advisory and the whole rest of the state, including Farmington, is having a freeze warning. Bring in the pumpkins and the last of your peppers from the garden. ;-) [No, I do NOT have a garden with peppers or pumpkins or anything else that could get damaged by freezing temps.]

Think back to the blog entry about goldenrod. On 8/2/08 I learned the legend that 6 weeks after the goldenrod blooms, you'll have your first frost. That was 6 and a half weeks ago. :-)

retrieved 9/18/08 from: http://www.erh.noaa.gov/car/

9/18/08 The Farmington Fair

Last year I attended the Farmington Fair for the first time (thanks, MRM!). I'm an expert at The State Fair of Texas, but this was a whole new world. I considered myself a beginner at Farmington Fair. This year I moved up to Advanced Beginner and actually worked at the fair!

Here I am with Andrea (who leads my church choir) volunteering in the St. Joseph's Food Booth at the fair.

Here are Jeremy and Claire (she's the head of religious education . . . I know her from being an on-call substitute for Sunday School) working in the back, doing all the cooking and most of the food prep.

Right out the window of the food booth, we could see the harness racing (and we don't have that at The State Fair of Texas!).

Every fair has its competitions: animals, cooking, canning, needlework and more. Farmington has its fair share, including cut flowers.

Ultimately, though, for some a fair is all about the Midway or the rides, but for me, it's about the food. Someone's planning on making A LOT of french fries during the one-week event.

MRM taught me last year that King and Queen fries are the best and she is sooooo right. I helped them make a tiny dent in this giant stack of sacks by eating a small order of fries.

They've got it all in this one booth. The cotton candy reminds me of Coney Island.

The Texas State Fair is famous for frying a lot of unique things. Both fairs have fried Oreos for sale.

But I know for certain that The State Fair of Texas doesn't have deep fried whoopie pies!

9/16/08 Labor Day details are coming, I promise

The amazing and wonderful Labor Day weekend ended on Monday and the new school year officially started on Tuesday. It's been a whirlwind ever since. I still haven't finished putting up photos or writing about Saturday afternoon and evening from the 4-day adventure. I promise I will. I hope to get to it this weekend. But meanwhile, life has been happening and I couldn't put all the blog entries on hold. I still have about 20 entries from last fall with photos and no words because I kept waiting 'til I had time to get caught up. So I've posted everything that I have and am up to date except for Labor Day weekend. When I do finish Labor Day's postings, I will add a blog entry with details so you can get caught up. Meanwhile, life moves on and mine continues to move in amazing and wondrous paths. God has so many fun surprises for me. I can't wait to see what will happen in my life next! Stay posted!

9/16/08 Close Enounter of the Striped Kind

I was walking home tonight after dark and under a full moon. I passed lots of people, so it wasn't too late. Or maybe it was late enough to be out when lots of other late night walkers were out. It's only 8 tenths of a mile from my office to The Verandah (which is how I now refer to the whole dwelling place including the verandah) and I was on the last tenth of a mile (all uphill). In the shadows by a fence between two houses I saw something moving and then I saw its shadow in the full moonlight and thought, "Oh a kitty cat!" Before I could call out "Here kitty kitty kitty," I figured out that there was a really big white stripe down the back of that "kitty". Eeegads! A skunk! Right here in civilization! Of course, I am pretty close to a big woods and there's not much about Farmington that isn't right on the border of rural. And skunks live in big cities as well as in the country due to encroachment. But this was as close to a live skunk as I've ever been and it was too close. I crossed the street and picked up my pace. I saw a shooting star and that was cool. As I looked back down from that, I swear a shadowy animal was crossing the street and went into my driveway. It did NOT have the silhouette of a cat or a dog, but I don't know what it was since I just caught a glimpse of it. In Dallas you could carry a whistle or mace and you knew you could 911 if you had any kind of encounter. What do you carry for protection from wildlife?

9/15/08 How damp is it?

You know there's been a lot of rain when you not only see a slug, but you see it up on your car! How did it get there?! (This is the back bumper of my car under the license plate . . . and yes, that's a Texas plate still. I promise I'm working on it.)

9/13/08 Another Sign of the End of the Season

Yep, you know summer's over when all the ice cream stands start shutting down. Here's my new favorite one on the way to Lewiston/Auburn (the one that's Randy, Rodney, & Jenn's favorite) with the "Thanks for a great year! See you next season!" sign in the window. Dutch Treat is closed for the season as well. Gifford's in Farmington is still open, but just through "Peeper Season" because there's enough tourist trade to make it worth their while. I'm already looking forward to next summer, which is going to be The Quest for the Best Ice Cream. That summer will be all about the process and not the product. I hope they all tie for first place.

9/13/08 running errands

In keeping with my pledge to give rides to anyone who needs one to try and pay it forward for the semester I didn't have a car . . . there was an email across campus asking if anyone was going to Portland because our visiting artist (here for two semesters from Liverpool, England) needed to pick up some supplies for a faculty art show next week. So I replied that I needed to go and could squeeze it in on Saturday. All I really needed in Portland was to pick up my shoes at the shoe repair. I had dropped off 6 pairs to be polished, waterproofed, re-soled, have taps added, etc. and told the shoe repair guy I would pick them up next time I was in town. I dropped them off on July 2nd! Good thing I wore tennis shoes all summer. But now the school year was starting and I needed some real shoes and they were all in Portland. I really didn't have time to go to Portland 'cuz I needed to get a lot of school work done, but I needed the shoes and Jeremy, the artist, needed his stuff before Monday. So we had planned this quick trip to Portland on Saturday. Then he had a chance to hitch along with the student excursion to New York City. For $45, leave on a bus at midnight Friday, arrive 9am Saturday, take a tour of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (tickets for that were included), split up and do your own thing for the rest of the day, leave at 11pm Saturday night and get back Sunday morning. I had even been tempted to sign up for that price but had decided against it. So Jeremy went on the bus tour and I went to Portland by myself and picked up his package of stuff and my shoes. I arrived at University of Southern Maine at the Area Gallery at the predetermined time and called the number I had been given. "Go on inside and wait in the gallery and I'll meet you there," the security officer said on the phone. So I did and this is what I found. The entire gallery was filled with an exhibit of Jeremy's work and Jeremy's name was painted on the wall! Wowser! I can't wait to meet this guy in person and find out more about him and his work. :-)

BTW, I successfully picked up my shoes as well. They look really great. This guy Steve works out of his garage in a residential area of South Portland. He's really nice and now I know that he does really good work for a reasonable price. After that, I treated myself to a little shopping and got 2 sweaters and a jacket. I just have to get used to traveling 4 hours round trip to run errands.

9/12/08 Maine potatoes

Gotta admit I haven't cooked 'em yet, but I've heard so much about them, that I had to buy some Maine potatoes. I have several students from Aroostook County (a.k.a. The County or "countay" as they say around here) which is famous for its potatoes. The schools in Aroostook County give the students two weeks off in the fall for potato harvest. I'll let you know how they taste. I've been warned not to have too high of expectations. We'll see.

9/12/08 OMG The Sequel

On May 1, just a little over 3 months ago, I had an amazing Oh My Goodness moment when I was voted by students to be "Faculty of the Year" for faculty who had been at UMF for 1 to 5 years. Tonight, I had another OMG moment. How can you have a "once in a lifetime experience" twice in the same year??? Tonight was the annual "Welcome Back Dinner" for faculty and staff. It's a very fun evening with crazy games, good food, recognition of employees for years of service, and great comraderie. I went last year and had a great time (and sat at the table that won the games, beating out the table that "always wins"). So I went again this year. This time, no one else from my department was there, but now I have enough friends and colleagues in other departments (from committee work and church and on-campus events, etc.) that I wasn't disappointed to not sit with my department buddies. In fact, I sat with Clyde and Michelle of Games Night and Michelle is such a cool person to hang out with, so I knew I'd have a good time. I had just been to the dentist the day before , and my new dentist's wife was at the table, too. She had come to Games Night when it was my turn to hostess, so I knew how much fun she was going to be. So all in all, it was a most enjoyable evening. After the singing and the games and the dinner and the speeches, they gave out recognition awards for people who had been at UMF for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35 years. That's always fun. Then they announced "a new tradition" where they were going to give awards for Excellence in Academic Advising. They gave a few of these at the March 2007 spring dinner and that was the first time they had been given. I'm guessing since that dinner is given by a student-led organization and the awards were not from that group, they decided to move them to this dinner. Well, you already know where this is going. I was named one of three recipients! The nomination process is that the department chair nominates people from his department. Well, I knew I'd been nominated (but frankly it was so long ago, I had forgotten) but so had at least one other person in our department and there are a lot of departments on campus. Then the dean writes a letter of support and forwards everything on to the committee. The committee then determines the official nominees and then sends email to all the advisees of the nominated advisors. And from all that input, the committee selects the winners. And there they were, calling out my name as a winner of the award! George, who is the head of the advising program and a lot of other good stuff on campus, read excerpts from the student emails as he presented each award. Here's what he read about me:

Theresa's advisees say that she takes a personal interest in each one of them, and is especially good at finding out what they really want to do, and then helping them to succeed. One student, who changed her major three times with Theresa's help, said that "She put me on the path to success--three times." She helps them find confidence when they need it. Although she hasn't been at UMF for a long time, she knows the curriculum well, and is always asking questions to find out more about how things work here. Another thing her advisees like about her is that she believes that it's important to have fun as well as work hard. Apparently she once had a conference with an advisee at a pie eating contest. One describes her as "The ultimate academic advisor."

How fun is that??!! I think my favorite part is that I had such fun quotes from my advisees. And they've actually figured out that I really mean it when I say, "It's important to have fun as well as work hard." And yes, I was attending (not participating in) a pie-eating contest and did have a quick advising session in the back row while waiting for the festivities to begin. In a personal email after the dinner, George wrote to me, "There was of course much more. Your advisees and colleagues think very highly of your advising, and of all your work at UMF. I enjoyed being a part of the public recognition of your good work here."

I'm flattered beyond belief.

9/11/08 Hurricane Ike

Wow. This hurricane is as big as Texas itself and heading straight towards Texas. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone who is in its path and those who have left their homes behind in order to get out of its path.

9/11/08 UMF remembers

UMF flag display remembers 9/11

By Bobbie Hanstein • Sep 11th, 2008
From The Daily Bulldog: Franklin County's First News

FARMINGTON - The UMF College Republican Club members were up early this morning.

Their mission, which began at 4 a.m., was to plant more than 2,000 small America flags to form the iconic “9/11″ numbers. The display, say organizers, is to remind those walking by of the tragic day seven years ago, on Sept. 11, 2001, when four commercial jetliners were hijacked by terrorists and flown into the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York City, the Pentagon, with a fourth crashing into a field in Pennsylvania.

“We wanted to do something on campus,” said UMF College Republican Club’s Vice Chairwoman Angela Courchesney. “We wanted something to stand out; for people to notice it and reflect on it.”

At noon, students crossing the green from the Olsen Student Center to Mantor Library and beyond, walked by glancing at the long lines of so many small flags. A few people walked up to the sign posted that explained the display was sponsored by the UMF College Republicans and “Never Forget 9/11.” Courchesney said she was disappointed to see someone had taken the sign mentioning the republicans and had crumpled it up at some point this morning. Someone else, she said, came along and tried to smooth the wrinkles of the sign and return it.

“There’s no place for that on a day like this,” she said.

Last spring, a flag display of another sort caused quite a bit of controversy when, as part of an art project, a UMF student placed various-sized American flags on the floor in a maze-like pattern in the hallway at UMF’s student center. The idea, said the student at the time, was to see if students would walk on or around the flags on the floor. The project upset a local veteran and a few others who attempted to remove the display, but were stopped by the UMF administration. That story eventually attracted national attention.

Today’s display, Courchesney said, was the product of much discussion among club members. “No matter what your politics, everyone can understand it.”

Until the display is removed at dusk, at about 7 p .m. tonight, Republican Club members intend to keep an eye on it.

“We’re going to be checking the flags to make sure they’re not touching the ground,” Courchesney said.

Betsy Judkins and her son Sammy of Farmington, walk along the flag display the UMF College Republican Club installed today to remember 9/11.

retrieved 9/16/08 from: http://www.dailybulldog.com/db/?p=498